Senior reporter at @CybersecurityDive.bsky.social covering all things digital security. I also co-host @hothtakes.bsky.social. | Send me tips: https://ericjgeller.com/contact.html
"'Had [the Interior Department] been forthcoming with the information clearly in its possession, the government would not have sought a grand jury indictment,' the filing said." www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
Trump administration drops Reflecting Pool case, blaming damage on ‘botched’ installationThe Justice Department said “it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.”www.nbcnews.com@timstarks.bsky.social has a good story about the reaction to these comments: cyberscoop.com/trump-blames...
Trump blames Minnesota for cyberattacks on water sector, drawing pushback from cyber worldTrump blamed Minnesota for recent water cyberattacks, rejecting U.S. intelligence attributing the strikes to Iran. Experts and Gov. Tim Walz pushed back.cyberscoop.comAaron RuparQ: Can you rule out that Iran is behind the water attacks? TRUMP: I don't think so. I think that Minnesota is behind it. You know who is behind it? Minnesota. Because they're grossly incompetent. I don't think there was an Iranian cyberattack. I think Minnesota ought to get its act together.
The Trump administration has told Congress that it's reassigning CISA staff to serve as election security liaisons to states during the midterm season, but CISA is so depleted that its services are limited — and anyway, many states have given up on waiting for fed help. www.cnn.com/2026/07/31/p...
Anthropic reveals its own rogue-model incidents: Due to human error in configuring a test environment, three Claude models hacked outside organizations during CTF exercises. Two proceeded despite realizing they were on the internet. www.anthropic.com/news/investi...
"'Maybe if we understand this, we can do something differently,' she said. 'Maybe we can keep other families from being in the same position.'" www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/u...
Rescue Boat Crews Show Signs of Brain Injuries, but Coast Guard Isn’t LookingUntreated and undiagnosed, the crews that save lives in the roughest seas face the relentless pounding of waves.www.nytimes.comAfter cyberattacks on Minnesota water systems, CISA says critical infrastructure operators should disconnect internet-exposed PLCs and other OT assets "as soon as possible." www.cisa.gov/news-events/...
CISA Urges Water and Wastewater Systems Sector to Protect OT Against Activity Targeting PLCs | CISAwww.cisa.gov"A US government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a state department presentation at a global conference in Brazil this week, causing a stir among attenders who took screenshots and posted them online."
US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conferenceState department ‘takes full responsibility’ for erroneous, widely shared chart displayed at Aids conference in Brazilwww.theguardian.comU.S. officials say Iran is likely responsible for the recent cyberattacks on Minnesota water systems. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/u...
U.S. Sees Iran as Likely Behind Cyberattack on Minnesota Water SystemsInvestigators cautioned that the assessment was preliminary. There were no indications that any water supply had been rendered unsafe to drink.www.nytimes.com"We’re really crushing people who are desperately trying to pay their bills." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/b...
CISA has published guidance to agencies on choosing, reviewing, maintaining, and developing open-source software: www.cisa.gov/sites/defaul...
Is Trump the first president to reference Jawa sandcrawlers? newrepublic.com/post/213703/...
AI and pressure from colleagues are converting a few House GOP CISA skeptics into supporters. Will we see a groundswell of mind-changing? That's TBD. Don Bacon's departure certainly won't help.
Republicans shunned the nation’s cyber agency. They’re now trying to save it.Concerns about powerful artificial intelligence with hacking capabilities and the security of the upcoming midterm elections have shifted the opinions of some influential Trump allies.www.politico.com"Mr. Miller, however, angrily disputed the notion that his seat was in jeopardy in a series of text messages in which he threatened to block a reporter’s number for seeking comment about the matter." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/u...
"There is a long tradition on Capitol Hill of politely ignoring the obvious decline of aging or otherwise incapacitated lawmakers..." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/u...
What’s Going on With Mitch McConnell? Kentucky’s Governor Has Questions.Gov. Andy Beshear called on Senator McConnell, who has been hospitalized since June, to prove his capacity to serve, or resign.www.nytimes.comAnthropic says Mythos figured out how to weaken a post-quantum cryptography algorithm being considered for standardization and break a weakened version of the widely used AES standard. www.anthropic.com/research/dis...
"Of 1,061 vulnerabilities attributed to AI-assisted discovery, only 14, or 1.3%, have been confirmed as exploited in the wild..." www.vulncheck.com/blog/state-o...
VulnCheck State of Exploitation 1H-2026 | Blog | VulnCheckKey Trends and Findings from Known Exploited Vulnerabilities, AI discovered vulnerabilities, and AI targeted technologies from the first half of 2026www.vulncheck.com"As much as the tech bros want to automate everything, you still have to meet people where they're at. People just want to pay their goddam bills. Why are we making it so hard?" www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
The IRS is imploding.The CEO says the agency is proving it's possible to have “less people and better results.”www.motherjones.com"Some testers tell Axios that they're getting far less time to study models' capabilities before release — in some cases just days instead of weeks." www.axios.com/2026/07/24/a... "
The people testing AI for danger are having a hard time keeping upSeveral challenges are tying up AI safety and security researchers just as U.S. frontier AI companies race to get new models to market.www.axios.comshot / chaser www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/u...